Archive for March 15th, 2010

I’ve been playing Star Trek Online for many weeks now, but today was the first time I clicked that “New Klingon Character” button, hoping to try my hand at some of their PvP play. I had a choice of several races, but in the end I made a tall, lithe but no less powerful female Klingon by the name of Argelia Kronmel of the I.K.S. Caracal. Klingon character creation was pretty much completely identical to Federation character creation, and the tutorial that followed was direct and very brief (with nothing like the scrumptious voice of Zachary Quinto teaching me what to do, for instance) but I was floored by the massive size of their base, and also quite impressed at the number of players running around. After only a few minutes, I had myself a ship and bridge officers for my crew, and was ready to go forth into space to kick some Federation ass.

Well, all I’ll say about that experience is that it made me remember why I generally stay away from PvP. It’s because I suck so hilariously bad at it. Still, the time spent fighting other people wasn’t all that terrible. I had a number of successes in the early stages, until my instincts failed and the weariness and the monotony got the better of me. I also get a sense there’s a stark imbalance between the Klingon Escorts vs. Starfleet Cruisers, and I’m not making that accusation simply because I’m feeling cranky about being a rather innocuous Klingon.

I don’t want to sound overly negative, though. In the end, I can’t deny that it was sort of fun and I suppose I could bring myself to do it again, if I ever find myself in a masochistic mood. But at any rate, now I can truly understand why people were disappointed at the lack of genuine PvE content for Klingons, and none of the reviews are exaggerated. A couple of “Kill 50 Federation ships” type quests here and there makes for a shallow experience and hardly counts.

I understand Cryptic has plans on adding a new playable faction to the game, and while I rejoice at the news, I do hope they will focus on what they already have and flesh out the Klingons first. I would love to play this faction with more to do than PvP. After all, the Klingon empire plays such a prominent role in the Star Trek IP, the no doubt the faction is brimming with potential when it comes to lore and game play.

Darth Hater has an extremely detailed and well written article on their hands-on experience with Star Wars: The Old Republic Trooper game play. It definitely gave me the goosebumps just reading it. I knew I stayed up for a reason!

Some highlights of the article include indication of huge open worlds, though planets will most likely differ in size. There will be plenty of armor slots and stats on equipment, AI is decently intelligent, and the general opinion is that voice-overs are well acted and sound natural (thank goodness, because nothing kills immersion faster than stiff, bumbling script-reading). There’s a whole lot of other juicy information, but what I thought was important is that the opening areas will be an easy, welcoming experience for all. Clearly, Bioware has no interest in leaving any Star Wars fan behind, even those who have never touched an MMO, and I think it’s a wise decision. I just know the game will get more and more polished as time goes on.

Overall, I have a good feeling after reading the article. I’m now more excited for SWTOR than ever. Anyone who is even remotely interested in the game should check it out, definitely worth the read.